Electric Vehicle Road Trip stops at Lewis and Clark

Published 12:00 am, Monday, June 23, 2014

GODFREY — Lewis and Clark Community College Director of Sustainability Nate Keener is charged about where he sees momentum in Illinois becoming more environmentally friendly.

Keener teamed up with several colleges starting Monday as part of the Illinois Green Economy Network Electric Vehicle Road Trip to boost awareness about electric vehicles (EVs) and gain support for charging stations across the state.

The tour began at John A. Logan Community College in Carterville and will end Wednesday at College of Lake County in Grayslake.

Each community college representative is responsible for getting to the next school on the itinerary, nine of which have some of the 450 charging stations statewide.

Illinois currently has nearly 5,000 registered electric vehicles. A push for electric charging stations is not relegated only to Illinois. The U.S. Department of Energy wants to see a tenfold increase in workplace charging in the next five years.

On Monday EVs collected at the campus in Godfrey. Marcia Lochmann of Southwestern Illinois College Monday left a Nissan Leaf at Lewis and Clark to charge.

Keener will take Lewis and Clark President Dale Chapman’s 2014 Ford Fusion plug in hybrid to the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield on Tuesday, and then to Heartland Community College in Normal.

Keener said he has high hopes for EV technology statewide.

“We kind of envision this corridor from Chicago to St. Louis as being a real boon for the industry,” he said.

According to Keener, climate change is a major reason why more electric vehicles are needed on the road, not only in other parts of Illinois, but near Lewis and Clark’s campus as well.

“Commuter miles is the single largest source for emissions for our campus,” he said.

Keener said EVs can supply the ideal vehicle experience for the hundreds of students who commute. Workplace charging makes sense as well, he said.

“You go to work; you’re there all day, you can charge, have a full charge by the time you get back and never use gasoline in the middle,” Keener said.

Not only is buying an electric vehicle good for the environment, it just makes plain sense in dollars as well, Keener said.

“You can definitely save money on gasoline,” he said. “As the price of gas (goes up) it makes even more sense to start looking at EVs.”